3 Daily Fantasy Baseball Stacks for Wednesday 4/26/23

Stacking is an integral part of daily fantasy baseball. Correlation drives upside, giving your lineups a slate-winning ceiling when your stacks explode.

This piece will do the digging and the dirty work each day to determine which stacks are worth rostering on FanDuel's main slate. While we want upside, we also need to factor in game theory, especially in a sport as random as baseball.

Our MLB DFS heat map is a quick way to get a feel for the overall slate and which offenses are in a good spot. You can also check out our daily fantasy baseball projections to identify the slate's best bats.

Let's look at the top stacks for this main slate, which starts at 6:35 p.m. EST.

Los Angeles Angels

The Los Angeles Angels have the night's top implied total (5.66) by nearly a full run, so let's start there.

The Halos are at home versus Luis Medina. The Oakland Athletics' righty is making his MLB debut tonight, and while he's put up some impressive strikeout numbers in the minors, he's also posted a double-digit walk rate at every stop he's made since the start of 2018.

Shocker -- Mike Trout ($4,200) and Shohei Ohtani ($3,700) are the big draws with the Angels, and both should be among the night's most popular bats. Ohtani owns a .406 expected wOBA (xwOBA) this year and has hammered righties for a 44.4% fly-ball rate. Trout has been his usual self, as well, boasting a .411 xwOBA thus far.

Hunter Renfroe ($3,700) is showing a .383 wOBA, which is why he's salaried up, but his xwOBA is only .309. I'll mostly pass over him in favor of others, and no other Angels hitter is salaried above $2,900.

Taylor Ward ($2,900) will likely be atop the order while both Anthony Rendon ($2,800) and Brandon Drury ($2,800) offer good pop at economical salaries. Jake Lamb ($2,200) and Matt Thaiss ($2,400) are value lefties who are viable salary-savers if they get into the lineup.

San Francisco Giants

The difference in the second-highest implied total and the seventh-highest is less than a half-run (as of early Wednesday), so things are wide open after the Angels. It feels like a day when a low-rostered offense is going to break the slate. I think the San Francisco Giants can be that offense.

San Francisco is at home versus Steven Matz. A lefty, Matz may see a Giants lineup with seven or eight right-handers in it, and over this season's brief sample, Matz has given up a .423 wOBA and 40.0% hard-hit rate in the split -- leading to 2.08 homers per nine. Even during his quality 2022 campaign, Matz permitted 1.66 dingers per nine to righties.

Thairo Estrada ($3,600) is the lone Giants hitter salaried above $3,000, so they're a great fit alongside Bryce Elder ($10,900) or Kodai Senga ($10,400). Estrada is eligible at both middle-infield spots and has offered a sweet power-speed combo this year, notching four dongs and six steals.

J.D. Davis ($3,000), Wilmer Flores ($2,800) and Mitch Haniger ($2,800) will be a core pieces of my San Fran stacks. Davis put up a 42.3% hard-hit rate against southpaws last year. Flores has long been a lefty killer, racking up a 57.6% fly-ball rate in the split in 2022, and Haniger got to left-handers for identical 44.9% hard-hit and fly-ball rates a season ago.

Austin Slater ($2,000), Joey Bart ($2,400) and Heliot Ramos ($2,100) are decent value dart throws if they start.

Los Angeles Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers catch my eye in a road clash with Roansy Contreras.

Contreras is a little tricky to stack against because he's shown an ability to miss bats, generating a 12.1% swinging-strike rate across 119 2/3 career innings. But he's off to a poor start to 2023, struggling to a 4.92 SIERA and 10.6% walk rate. His swinging-strike rate is down to 9.6% this season, and while we're dealing with small samples, left-handed hitters have struck out just 9.8% of the time against him this year.

Unfortunately, Max Muncy and Will Smith are unlikely to be in the lineup today, but the Dodgers have several other enticing options, starting with Mookie Betts ($3,600) and Freddie Freeman ($3,500). Freeman has a .414 xwOBA and is once again looking like one of the best hitters in the game.

James Outman ($3,400) is off to an insane start, and he's mauling righties to the tune of a .462 wOBA, 40.0% hard-hit rate and 44.4% fly-ball rate. Sign me up.

David Peralta ($2,400), Michael Busch ($2,200) and Jason Heyward ($2,600) need to be on our radar as they're low-salary lefties who could come through.